Field of the Invention
The country is spending a lot of money on petroleum products to generate the power needed to support our life style. In addition and as a result, we are also generating large amounts of CO2, Carbon Dioxide, using this petroleum energy source, thus contributing further towards global warming, as speculated by a lot of scientists. There is an intensive drive to get off petroleum energy sources as much as possible and to start using other/alternative sources of energy, first to reduce our dependency on foreign sources of energy and second, to reduce the carbon emissions. The purpose of this invention is to help in getting us closer to this goal.
Background Art
It is well known that a piezoelectric (PE) material or device can generate an electric charge or voltage and ultimately power, when it is mechanically stressed, as depicted in FIG. 1 or in FIG. 2-A or in FIG. 5 or in FIG. 21.
As shown in FIG. 1, if a piezoelectric cantilever beam 101, fixes in a support 102 is pushed down as in 103, an electric potential can be detected at points 104 and 105. FIG. 2-A shows more details. Here the piezoelectric cantilever beam 201 has two electric contacts 202 and 203 near its fixation end, where it is between that clamps 204 and 205. When the beam is pushed to positions 206 or 207, then we can detect the electrical potential at the terminals 208 and 209. These electrical potentials can be observed on a scope, roughly as illustrated in the graph at the left end of the FIG. 2-A. FIG. 2-B shows the potential, if a 4-diode, full bridge rectifier is attached between the piezoelectric beam and the scope.
And vice versa, such a PE material can move mechanically when an electrical power or charge is applied to it, as in the PE “fan” depicted in FIG. 4. For example, there are Piezoelectric (PE) speakers, which convert electrical input signals to sound, the sound being generated by a diaphragm of some sort, which is moved mechanically by the PE element in the speaker, where the PE element has converted the electrical input signal into a mechanical movement output. The reverse is also true. There are PE lighters, which act in the reverse way. When you strike a PE element inside the lighter, by some mechanical input like pushing on the release lever, the PE element generates an electric output, which creates the spark needed to light a fire for example. This PE lighter does generate electrical power as a result of applying a mechanical input onto its PE element.
There are a certain number of materials that have/exhibit this PE phenomenon. For example, solids made out of certain ceramic materials, or sheets made out of KYNAR, usually flexible if thin enough, which is a plastic material, exhibit such a PE phenomenon.
My invention here is to utilize this PE phenomenon and such materials, to generate electric power, by applying mechanical stress and/or movements on such materials, for example from wind, from waves in the ocean or similar water bodies, or from anything that could generate a mechanical stress and/or movements in a PE material.
Of course, there should also be a way to capture the electric power that would be generated by these materials as a result of these mechanical inputs, and to store the generated electric power, or to use it or consume it right away. I propose using means to direct the generated electric power at the right instances in appropriate directions, so that if there are two units of electric power, that are generated at the same time but are of opposite polarity, then these two units would not cancel out each other. For this purpose, I am proposing a number of alternatives, described here below.
A first alternative is to use semi-conductors, such as diodes and/or transistors, to separate the output charges and collect the similar charges at individual collectors, separately from the non-similar charges, so that they do not neutralize each other. In other words, collect all the Positive (+) charges at the Positive (+) collector or terminal, and collect all the Negative (−) charges at the Negative (−) collector or terminal.
A second alternative is to break down any large size PE generator and/or Collectors into smaller units or segments. The purpose is again to reduce the chance of having one polarity charge neutralizing the opposite polarity charge, mostly by separating the generating elements from each other as much as possible and/or by separating the collectors as well, for the same purpose. All these alternatives include at the same time, features to facilitate the manufacturing processes to create the various proposed embodiments.